BA Honours in Education (Top Up)

Course Specification

The BA (Hons) Education award aims to develop reflective practitioners able to take responsibility for their own learning.

This course offers a holistic approach to education and learning, relating appropriate theory to practice. A key feature of the course is a progressive understanding of you as a learner and as a learning practitioner. The course has been designed to meet the needs of anyone looking to work with people in any professional context that involves learning. This includes anyone considering working in educational settings such as schools, colleges, academies, museums and art galleries, youth services, education departments within film, theatre, radio and television, the armed forces, etc.

This degree in Education offers access to a wide variety of career and academic options. You may progress to employment within family and children centres, care support, educational administration and management, play work, learning support and many other educational contexts. Alternatively, you may enter teaching through PGCE, Schools Direct, Schools Direct (salaried), SCITT and Apprenticeship routes.

To join this BA Top-up programme you should already hold:

• Foundation Degree in Education or a Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies or other relevant Foundation Degree or equivalent (240 credits with 120 credits at level 5).
• Have a minimum of three GCSEs (or equivalent) at grade C or above, including English Language.
• You should be employed for at least 4 hours per week in an appropriate education role and setting. The employment may be paid or voluntary but must be evidenced at the commencement of the course.

International Students: You will need to have reached a certain standard of speaking English. Please see our ESOL course. International applicants require a current IELTS 6 score, with no single skill being below 5.5.

All applicants will be required to attend an interview to determine eligibility. The offer of a place is dependent upon a satisfactory DBS check (formally CRB) which confirms that there are no contra-indications to you working with children and vulnerable adults.

The course is modular; you will undertake four modules including an Individual Research Project which is normally carried out in the context of your own setting.

The level 6 modules are as follows:

• Changes and Developments in Education (20 credits)
• The Reflective Practitioner (40 credits)
• Doing Education Differently (20 credits)
• Individual Research Project (40 credits)

This model of delivery means that you are able to relate theory to practice and vice versa, thus engaging in a continuous process of reflection on your practice and professional development within the context of your study. The course seeks to:

• Reflect a set of beliefs, values, morals and ethical principles for those seeking a qualification and eventually employment in the education sector that promotes equality, and respect for diversity and challenges prejudices and stereotypes
• Produce reflective practitioners able to take responsibility for their own learning, equipped with a theorised understanding of policy and practice with an ability to use research and reflection to inform practice and articulate a professional rationale
• Reflect the view that learners are at the heart of the work of an educational practitioner
• Provide structured and assessed opportunities for work-based learning in a variety of settings
• Enable students to develop their key and transferable skills and to apply these in an academic context when working with others in a variety of settings
• Provide an enabling structure that allows students to benefit from their learning and experiences so that they may respond flexibly to the changing expectations and demands of both policy and practice in the workplace
• Provide a programme of development that inspires and interests trainees to develop a passion for working with others and to continue to seek opportunities for mutually extending and enhancing their learning experiences
• Develop in students the ability to construct and sustain a reasoned argument, informed by research, about a wide range of issues; engaging critically with evidence-based reflective practice
• Develop a critical understanding of appropriate pedagogical approaches to work with children, adolescents and adults
• Enable all students to understand the development and learning needs of all children, young people and adults in a diverse society without prejudice or discrimination.

Teaching and Learning

The teaching and learning strategies have been carefully designed to maximise the opportunity for you to use and reflect upon your employment in the education sector. This will provide practical contexts for the analysis of contemporary issues and problems of a practical and theoretical nature. Learning and teaching strategies will include: whole and small group discussions following a blended learning approach, problem-based learning, case studies, individual research, verbal questioning, experiential practical learning for example, facilitated learning observation, one-to-one tutorials, critical reflective practice, tutor modelling of good practice, observation of other professionals, guest speakers.

Each module will vary slightly in the teaching and learning styles adopted, however, all modules will include traditional learning materials, such as hand-outs, and visual and oral presentations. Much of the time will be spent in discussion and reflection, relating theory to practice. You will be briefed on assignments prior to submission and will be issued with clearly defined assessment criteria.

MS Teams will support your study by providing access to programme information and module materials online to enable you to manage your time more effectively and to support staff/student communication through bulletin boards. This can promote online discussions with staff and peers.

We intend that the learning programme will be both stimulating and demanding, and should lead you through progressive stages of development, towards increasingly complex and open-ended tasks, and increasingly sophisticated application of intellectual, conceptual and personal independent study.

You will be assessed in every module of the programme. The assessments are designed to test the achievement of the module’s learning outcomes and you will be given information about what is expected of you at the start of each module. Assessment types, volume and length have been closely considered by the University team to allow students to develop skills and knowledge outlined within module assessment criteria. Some modules have more than one assessment task and will be linked to the teaching and learning methods of the module.

Evidence of the professional routines supporting effective teaching and learning will be an ongoing requirement containing, for example, personal reflections and evaluations on professional learning, assessments, self-evaluations of submitted assignments other relevant evidence. Your portfolio will evidence your professional progress throughout the course. This includes any Personal Learning Plans which you develop during the course and which will evidence your personal engagement with the awards as well as demonstrate your self-evaluation and reflective practice.

At Shrewsbury Colleges Group we do our best to make HE study as easy as possible for you and that includes making living away from home for the first time an exciting prospect, rather than a cause for concern. If you’re planning on studying at a higher level at Shrewsbury Colleges Group, student accommodation is now available in the centre of Shrewsbury. For more information please follow this link.

To join this course you will first have to register with UCAS at www.ucas.com and then apply through UCAS. (Choose: Sign In–Students–Undergraduate–Apply–Register and follow the instructions.) You will then receive a confirmation email from UCAS and the College will be in contact with an interview date. Current Shrewsbury Colleges Group students should seek support from their tutor before applying.